The present invention relates generally to an ink jet recording apparatus of the type where printing ink is ejected from an ink jet printing head toward a writing surface by means of an electric field established between electrodes.
Known is an ink jet recording apparatus with an ink jet printing head of the type, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,234 and illustrated in FIG. 1 of the present application, comprising a surface electrode 102 attached to the front surface of the ink jet printing head 101 and a control electrode 104 placed in an ink chamber 103. The surface electrode 102 and the control electrode 104 are provided for establishing an electric field therebetween to cause ink in an ink nozzle 112 coupled to the ink chamber 103 to extend toward an air-ink nozzle 110 so as to form a meniscus 113. In response to application of a control voltage V.sub.S (corresponding to a recording signal) in addition to a bias voltage V.sub.B, the ink meniscus 113 is pulled off and the resultant ink droplet is carried by airstream supplied from an air supply passage 107 through an air chamber 111 and ejected through the air-ink nozzle 110 and the ejected ink droplet is attached as illustrated at 106 to a recording sheet 105. The surface electrode 102 is positively charged and the carried ink droplet is negatively charged, and thus the recording sheet 105 is charged negatively. As a result of this charging relation, particles 109 such as dust and coating materials attached to the recording sheet 105 are drawn and attached to the surface electrode 102. The particles would cause disadvantages of ink ejection such as clogging of the ink nozzle 110 and flight curvature of the ejected ink droplet, resulting in deterioration of the recording characteristics of the apparatus.